Representations of the Greek landscape in the arts from the 18th until the late 20th century (painting, engraving, photography)
Rationale of the research action
Since the publication of the fundamental study of Sir Kenneth Clark, Landscape into Art, in 1949 (Clark, 1949), there has been a huge number of academic studies on visual representations of the landscape. Over the last decades, landscape has become a research field of special interest for art history. This interest has been fruitfully developed and decisively contributed to both the interdisciplinary study and to the formulation of theoretical and methodological questions about the concept of “landscape” and the historicity of its uses and meanings (Brunon, 2006). This research activity has resulted in many publications as well as in the development of museological and exhibition practices, that constitute expressions of what Pierre Donadieu (2002) has called “désir du paysage” in contemporary post-industrial societies with highly developed environmental sensitivities.
Contrary to the international trends in research, exhibition practices and academic literature, in Greece there is very little academic interest in how landscape is depicted in the visual arts and very few relevant publications, as there is also very little theoretical thinking about this issue, with a few sporadic exceptions which concern the photographic landscape (Σταθάτος, 1996· Παπαϊωάννου, 2005). Apart from a number of albums and a few Ph.D. dissertations that usually have focused on specific issues (see for example Γοδόση, 1998· Φαρμάκη, 2011), the visual representation of the landscape has only been dealt with in monographs on the work of artists who more or less were specialized landscape painters, such as Konstantinos Volanakis (Βλάχος, 1973), Kostas Maleas (Κωτίδης, 1981) Nikos Chadjikyriakos-Ghikas (Βαλκανά, 2012), and Yannis Mitarakis (Ματθιόπουλος, 2006). It is only the depictions of the Greek landscape by European travelers that has been the subject of systematic research and publications (Ματάλας, 2009· see also the database http://el.travelogues.gr/).
Lack of research in Greek landscape painting is disproportionate to the attention that the concepts of land and landscape have received at times in relation to the formulation and legitimization of ethnocentric theories and identities, especially those connected to the various versions of “Greekness”, and conceptual representations and stereotypes that visualize the notions of motherland, nation, place of origin and so on. However, one may find in academic literature important publications that highlight this very use of landscape in the context of ideological and political strategies, which, from the 18th century onwards, have aimed at associating particular characteristics of the landscape with national identity (Warnke,1994· Brunon, 2006).
Basic directions-axes of the research project
Ι. Denis Cosgrove (1984) has developed the idea of “symbolic landscape”, defining landscape not only as a “way of seeing” but also as a profoundly ideological concept.
Therefore, it is necessary to make a preliminary study of the creation of the ideological conditions, the visual perceptions and the artistic standards that have predetermined, through imaginary or selective topographic elements, how Greek landscape has been visually depicted as the “symbolic landscape” of Greece. As a consequence, a particular but essential thematic axis of the proposed research project is the recording of the artistic production that reflects the transition from the imaginary-classical landscape, as it had been originally developed in the 17th century, to the landscape of the Enlightenment and Romanticism, that combines imaginary-ideal representations with the emergence of an interest in archaeology, the journey to Greece, the movement of philhellenism and the first exact topographic depictions of Greek landscape by travelers and painters-travelers. Given that the invention of the landscape is a product of a specific viewpoint, that has been partially fashioned by a preconstructed aesthetic framework (Cauquelin, 2000), the main research question of this axis of the project is in what way the largely imaginary visual representations of the Greek landscape by Western artists have contributed to the shaping of the pattern of an ideal landscape; in other words, the main question is to what extent these early representations have determined the options, the reception and the rendering of the Greek landscape in the realistic landscape representations that followed.
ΙΙ. After the establishment of the Greek state, in the context of the policies that it adopted while organizing itself according to modern European standards, fine arts were systematically cultivated (e.g., foundation of the School for Arts in 1837) following the aesthetic-artistic tendencies of Western art. In consequence, there has been a great interest in the different themes and genres of painting, such as portraiture, history painting, landscape painting, etc. It is in this context that Greek artists developed gradually an interest in representing the Greek landscape.
The expression of this interest has been at times determined by the reception of the dominant aesthetic and stylistic standards of European art (neoclassicism, academicism, realism, impressionism, symbolism, cubism, expressionism, land art, etc.), shaping and reshaping the correspondent conceptual-visual rules of representation of the Greek landscape.
Taking into consideration the continuous expansion of the territory and the gradual establishment of the institutional framework of the Greek state during the 19th and 20th century, the very meaning of the term “Greek landscape” or “landscape of the Greek land” has been subject to constant changes and obliges researchers to “rehistoricise” and relativise it.
The aim of this research axis is to record works of landscape painting by the most important Greek and foreign artists who were active in Greece during the 19th and 20th century.
ΙΙΙ. At the same time, ground-breaking scientific and technological advances changed radically and expanded the range of possibilities in recording and depicting the landscape. Photography, one the most important technological achievements of the First and Second Industrial Revolution, has been associated with both the landscape production and the procedures of recording and disseminating information through the mass media. Thus, it has become a necessary tool for travelers, scientists, artists, tourists, state institutions, etc. Since the mid-19th century the wide use and circulation of photographs has dramatically modified the visual perception of space and led to the establishment of a new visual language, whose impact has been decisive for contemporary postmodern societies, bearing socio-political, economic, scientific and aesthetic meanings.
Hence, nowadays landscape photography, and in particular Greek landscape photography, constitutes a polymorphic, vague and more or less unshaped mosaic of data open to a wide spectrum of approaches and interpretations.
On the basis of the above, a systematic collection and recording of the pictorial production (paintings and photographs) related to the Greek landscape is an urgent need. The compilation of a well-documented catalogue of works of art, classified and accessible to research will provide the necessary preconditions for the study and interpretation of the history of the visual representations of the Greek landscape. In the context of the proposed project, research will focus on the rural landscape, leaving the question of the urban landscape to a future complementary project.
In addition to the above, art critical and historical discourse on artistic representations of the landscape during this period will also be collected and classified.
Research questions – methodology:
Research for works of art, whose exclusive or main subject is the Greek landscape, as well as their recording will be systematically conducted in public and private collections and in relevant publications (studies, exhibition catalogues, albums, art journals, databases, etc.). It will also be conducted in specialized libraries, archives (National Gallery - Alexandros Soutzos Museum, Athens School of Fine Arts, University of Crete, The Hellenic Literary and Historical Archive, Gennadius Library, etc.), and databases.
More specifically, the project will focus on three axes:
Ι. The recording of the imaginary and idealized landscape by classicist and romantic European painters, who, in the 18th century, created, through the prism of classical letters and the Enlightenment, an imaginary image for the natural beauty of ancient Greece, which served as a ready-made aesthetic framework for future visual representations of the Greek landscape.
ΙΙ. The recording and documentation of artworks, whose subject is the Greek landscape, created by the most important Greek painters and engravers, who were active in Greece from the establishment of the Greek state to the end of the 20th century.
ΙΙΙ. The recording and documentation of photographs, whose subject is the Greek landscape, created by photographers who were active in Greece from the mid-19th century to the end of the 20th century.
ΙV. The indexing and recording of art critical discourse in Greece regarding the landscape.
The project is carried out in the context of the wider interdisciplinary research project of the Institute for Mediterranean Studies, FORTH, which is entitled “Mediterranean Cultural Landscapes” (METOPO, 2017-2020).